Pro bono project helping Refugee women

Back in October 2024, I was referred to and offered my professional services to a start-up NGO in Zürich. I had been a stay-at-home mom since moving to Switzerland, and after applying unsuccessfully to creative/editing jobs on Linkedin, I decided that it was time to get to work. I knew that this NGO was looking to fundraise in order to pay for a space where refugee women and local women can gather. It would be a room where they could offer workshops or where the women can share their stories with each other. I found it inspiring and wanted to help out.

My offer was to create this video for them, and they accepted. I had been a tv/film/commercial editor for 12 years but had never shot a project. I went on youtube and scoured through videos. I then bought gear that I thought would be necessary for a doc-style shoot. Camera lenses. Lights. Light domes. Lavs. C-stands. This, to be honest, got expensive. I had already purchased a Canon r5 C as a replacement for my Canon 7D the previous year but hadn’t used it much other than for some business headshots (also pro bono). I wrote up a concept along with interview questions and some b-roll thoughts, and then I met with the refugee and got to know her so that she would be comfortable when she had her interview as well as giving me a chance to scout her place.

Shooting began in November, and long story short, there was quite a bit of trial and error. There was also a lot of single-handedly carrying heavy gear on public transportation to the different locations. New muscles to show for it. :) The good thing was that, having edited and been in production meetings for docs, I felt comfortable asking the necessary questions during interviews to get the story I needed. I knew what I wanted the shot to look like, but sometimes, it didn’t come together, or setting up took longer than I had anticipated. It was definitely a learning process.

I brought in the footage and found some issues, but overall, it wasn’t too bad, and what wasn’t working was fixable in Resolve. The challenge was in getting the hour-long Farsi clip translated into English. We couldn’t find someone to do this, and especially in a way where I could edit the refugee woman’s audio and not cut in the middle of a sentence. This was probably a delay of about a month. When we finally got someone to translate more accurately, I had to take the transcript and use google translate to translate back into Farsi in order to find where the woman might possibly be starting the sentence. I spent countless hours doing this. I eventually got on a Zoom call with the translator and spent a few hours placing the English subtitles in the correct place with her.

It took another 3 days to cut the piece, while also dealing with stock footage deals and music licensing. I wish I could have had a post-producer dealing with the logistics, but overall, I’m happy with how the video turned out as my first shooting project. I definitely still have a lot to learn if I want to continue working on projects from start to finish, but I also feel more confident in my abilities.

Hope you enjoy the film :)